This mix is less of a best jazz recordings of 2017 and more of a mix of jazz that I enjoyed in 2017. I don't listen to nearly as much jazz as I do ambient and indie music. But I liked enough releases to come up with an end of the year jazz mix. So here it is.

The year was anchored by two spectacular recordings - Aytche by Joseph Shabason and All This I Do For Gloryby Colin Stetson. I saw Stetson at a small club and was blown away by his sound and technique. If you get the chance to see him up close definitely go.

There are two albums that I discovered while compiling tracks for my mix, Rhythm of the Rails. Those two are Eternal Storiesby Michel Portal & Quator Ebene and Simultonality by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society. Both excellent recordings.

Another highlight of 2017 was ECM records putting their entire catalog up on Spotify. I listened to nothing by ECM for a few weeks this fall.

This will probably be my last mix for 2017. I've already started on a guest mix for liftedicons.com that will be fun to put together. Music definitely helped me get through a messed up 2017. Here's to a great 2018.

This mix is a sort of follow up to the train mix of a couple of months ago. I had a song or two that I hadn't used and then I stumbled upon the album "Simultonality" by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society. The track, Sideways Fall, has this great repetitive train-like feel to it. I knew immediately that I needed to make another train mix to fit with that tune.

That Joshua Abrams track is more jazz than ambient so I decided to keep that vibe throughout the mix. A few cuts, Steve Reich, Dan Deacon & Fieldhead, wander off the jazz track a bit but they keep the sense of forward motion.

The three 2017 releases in this mix are a few of my favorite discoveries this year. Check them out.

I'm not sure where this mix began. Possibly late at night, glass of whiskey on the table, slow jazz playing in the background. Arve Henriksen probably came up & got me thinking about dark, atmospheric jazz. Which sends me to Spotify to investigate more jazz noir, which leads to the discovery of Shadowdream & Dead Combo, which leads to a new mix.

As you've probably guessed by now this is a late night, atmospheric jazz set. I knew when I started this mix that I'd have to include something from the Twin Peaks soundtrack because that is the first thing I think of when contemplating noir jazz. The Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch cut that I picked works nicely because also used it for the title of the mix.

I really like the mood and feel of this entire mix and I hope you do too. Grab a scotch and give it a spin in the dark.

This collection isn't necessarily a "best of 2015" , it's just some of my favorite jazz tunes from the past year.

It begins with one of my favorite albums of the year in any genre - The Thompson fields by The Maria Schneider Orchestra. The title track is remarkable. The Jaga Jazzist album was a big surprise for me. I've listen to them on and off for years but had lost interest for some reason. The track in this mix is strange, futuristic electronic/jazz cut that I have listened to a ton this year. The other two great discoveries were albums from Kamasi Washington and Kendrick Scott Oracle, definitely worth checking out.

Is there any jazz out there that really engaged you in 2015? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

"Slow Decay" is a collaborative mix from Low Light Mixes & Ambient Landscape. We've each done mixes for each other but we thought it would be cool make a mix in which we both contributed alternating sections.

Gene(ambient landscape) came up with the title and I started things off with a couple of cuts. I sent it to Gene, he added a few more, sent it back to me, I added more tracks and so on and so on. Until we had a fascinating 1 hour & 16 minute journey.

I love how things turned out. The combination of ecm-style jazz and ambient and experimental music worked perfectly.

As usual with these mixes there is one song in particular that gets the ball rolling and in this case it's the title track from the album The Thompson Fields by the Maria Schneider Orchestra. The whole album is wonderful collection open, airy jazz tracks and the title song is just stunning. Definitely one of the most beautiful songs released this year, second only to Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell.

The rest of the mix is your standard Sunday morning mix. Maybe a bit more jazz in this one. Other than the Davis Sylvian tune most of the cuts are fairly new.

Grab a cup of coffee and the paper with this mix as your Sunday soundtrack.

This iteration of the Sunday morning series uses mostly new music including a couple of great Bob Dylan covers from Sarah Jarosz and Phosphorescent. I couldn't resist starting the mix with the wonderful "Morning" from Beck's new release.

From there we move on to a beautiful, jazzy track from Philémon Chante that I have been itching to use for a while. That cut is from his album called Les Sessions Cubaines which you can find on Bandcamp here...Philémon Chante

There a couple soundtracks represented in the mix from two of the best films of 2013, "Her" and "Nebraska." Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett collaborated for the "Her" soundtrack, with two cuts in this mix. Mark Orton did the beautifully simple soundtrack for "Nebraska" and it shows up here in the track "The Old Compressor Escape." I've got an Americana mix waiting in the wings which will have more from that soundtrack.

One of my other favs is the cut from Bill Callahan. He remixed his 2013 album, "Dream River," as a dub album called "Have Fun With God." It's fantastic!

I have to be honest. One of the reasons I've done so many(#5 now) of these Sunday morning music mixes is that they are so popular, especially on Mixcloud. So I'm a sellout, a ratings whore. I admit it. But I like to think that each Sunday mix is a good listen in it's own way.

I usually stumble upon a song or two that prompts me to start a new mix. In this case it was the song "Before My Time" which leads off the mix. It's the song that plays during the credits of the film Chasing Ice. When I heard it as the credits rolled it knocked my socks off. That's Scarlett Johansson singing. She's got a unique voice, not one to be used for candy coated pop music. But absolutely perfect for the beautiful restraint of "Before My Time."

I hope this mix is another worthy addition to the Sunday morning music series. Enjoy.

Oops! It's Sunday night & I'm posting a mix called Sunday Morning Music. Oh well, play it next Sunday while reading the paper with a cup of coffee.

This is the fourth in the Sunday morning series. It follows a similar pattern - some ambient, some vocal tunes, some jazz - all of it nice & relaxing. Perfect for a Sunday morning. This morning I was actually able to sip coffee out on the deck(shown in the pic). Not bad for the 11th of November in Wisconsin.

Two of my favorite cuts in the mix are the two tracks(End of the World & The Smallest Piece) from the soundtrack of "Beasts of the Southern Wild." I'm o very fond of the cuts from Geoffrey Oreyma & Andrew Bird. The latest release from Andrew Bird will definitely be on my year-end,best-of list.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Brambles - To Speak of Solitude

03:30 The xx - Angels

06:11 The Boats - The Ballad For The Girl On The Moon

09:40 The Bark Psychosis - Pendulum Man

16:40 Trespassers William - Believe Me

20:46 Yo Yo Ma & Chris Thile - Franz & The Eagle

24:20 Geoffrey Oryema - Makambo

28:55 Pat Metheny/Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint

32:09 Philip Glass & Nosaj Thing - Knee 1

35:35 Charles Lloyd Quartet - Dwija

40:40 Clarke - Black Stone

42:34 Benh Zeitlin, Dan Romer, The Lost Bayou Ramblers - End of the World

Sunday mornings in summer...put on some coffee even though the temps are already climbing.

Sunday mornings in summer...are spent on the deck with the paper & the birds.

Sunday mornings in summer...slow motion start to a slow motion day.

This is the third in my unplanned Sunday morning music series. I hadn't intended to more than one of these mixes but the first was so popular on Mixcloud that I couldn't resist doing more. I was amazed at how many listens it got and to be honest, I liked that popularity, so I became a bit of a ratings whore & went back to that same well again.

As with the others in this series, this mix is a collection of instrumentals, acoustic tunes, jazz & other oddballs. I am happy to have squeezed in the tune, The Farther Away I Am, from Daryl Hall. Yes that's Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates. It's from a 1980 solo album he did that was produced by Robert Fripp, thereby assuring it would be a commercial bomb. The album was kind hit & miss but I've always loved that song.

Other favs in the mix are the ones by Sun Kil Moon & Keola Beamer and of course the Colin Meloy cover which I stole as the title for volume 3 in this series. I know the Beamer tune borders on new age. But I think this cut doesn't go over the edge into new age crap. It just has this nice breezy feel which perfect for sitting on the deck with the sun on your face.